the kids got in trouble, went to bed early

and so now I have time to blog an update.

My kids are a little obsessed with Michael Jackson. They constantly watch you tube videos, their favorite being Smooth Criminal. Brody used to always ask if Michael will still be 50 when he is resurrected. While watching the movie This is It, there are clips of young Michael and Brody said "he used to be black?!" I caught this picture of him, dressed in his Michael best (Smooth Criminal Michael best) doing the dance moves along with the video. This just thrills Ryan beyond thrilled to see his son wanting to be like Mike.

at the end of April, Ryan and I went to Atlanta for the Portrait Society of America Conference. It was wonderful. I stayed up late, slept in, worked out, went to the mall by myself and hung out with some cool people. Ryan had to give portfolio reviews for a few hours, here he is in action.

the kids helped celebrate my moms birthday.

We got The Pass of all Passes, along with the rest of Utah County and went to the batting cages on Friday. The passes will be fun for the summer but I just have to mentally prepare for the crowds. The batting cages only had 2 machines going and there was no rules about each turn. We just had to wait in line until the person in front of us was done.

Cloe was the only kids tall enough to drive the go karts by herself and they only had ONE double car. So that meant I had to drive this thing around in circles with 3 different kids, luckily they were excited enough to be patient while waiting in a long line.
I think the "baby chicken" (we still refer to them as the babies) that is black, won't be laying eggs for me in July. I think it just might be a rooster. I really really hope not, but we don't want a rooster so we may be finding Bella a new home soon.

Baseball season has officially begun, Cloe and Brody were in the opening day parade and loved it. I am already far more impressed with this cities recreation department than I was with the last city we lived in. The parade was so fun, the fields are so much nicer and they actually have jerseys rather than t-shirts with silk screening and it's the same price.

this was the view behind Brody's field, so pretty. Such a gorgeous day.
We passed the local grocery store and they had some sort of pirate promotional set up in the parking lot and I let the kids go down the slide a few times. Pointless activity to post? yes. But I loved Charlotte's reaction to the first time going down the slide that I thought I would make it sound like this great activity that has recently happened.
and our ghetto dinner outside. We dug a hole for the fire pit and need to invest in some more lawn chairs. But the upside down laundry basket will work for now. Abbey said "it's like were camping and our house is our trailer." If my kids are convinced this is camping, then let's go camping all summer!

Happy Mom's day to me and the other wonderful woman in my life.

This year I bought all my Mother's day gifts, handed them to the kids Saturday night and told them to wrap them. Ryan hadn't mentioned Mother's day and there were things that I wanted/needed but felt guilty buying them. Until i remembered Mother's day was just around the corner, "Oh, I'll buy it as a Mother's day gift". Look at the brain on Courtney. I think it is a tradition that I will continue. It ended up being a nice relaxing day and of course my favorite gifts were the handmade cards and bookmarks. Brody was very proud that he made me teary eyed with his letter he wrote.

we do celebrate holidays

In our Easter best. We headed to Ryan's studio after church for better lighting and it made for more interesting back drop.


the lamb. I leaned how to cook and marinate it while in Italy. I was surprised at how small the lamb section was at the store, In Florence there were meat cases full of lamb this time of year. Regardless, it still turned out delicious.

Let the egg hunt begin. My mom had fun crafts and activities for the kids and special bunny masks.

believe it or not

I'm pregnant. totally joking. sorry. Believe it or not, stuff has happened around here since we visited Grandma Young. Spring break being one of them. I'll be honest, I was dreading it a little bit having the kids home all day for a week. When they are used to being at school all day, I find that they get bored at home and it also makes my routine harder. Grandma's to the rescue. I'm not even sure if I had all 4 kids for more than 2 nights. And it was also wonderful to sleep in!! We had a good time and all agreed that we can't wait for Summer.
we stayed up late, went swimming, played outside all day with friends, and went to the book store but here are the highlights, our favorite things we did.

This was the most fun my kids have had all year. They thought pushing their own carts through the store was the coolest thing ever. "Mom is this what it feels like to be a Mom?" "Mom, can we go back to that one Smith's with the small carts? please?" They wanted to go back every day. I personally was in fear for my ankles the entire time.


We headed up to SLC to visit the Church Museum. They have a great kids area and it's free!


Cloe was pretty good at Mexican dancing

Brody and Sage built a tower

and then destroyed it.

The cousins and Ryan's Christ painting in the background.

On the last day of Spring Break April 16th, I ran the SLC half marathon. It was a great race with a little too much excitement for my liking. We were told to take Trax to the start line. I got to the stop at 6:20 am, the train never came until 6:55. I got to the starting line at 7:15 and the race started at 7! But we had chip timers so it didn't really matter, just very nerve racking. And I had to stop to go #2. I hate that in a race. Great course though and I beat my last half marathon time by 15 minutes.

This wasn't during Spring break, a little impromptu egg hunt with some friends.
Cloe took 3rd place in the 200m race out of the 3rd graders at the Hershey track meet.
On early out Friday we went to Hee Haws spring farm. I don't recommend it. They are much better at doing Fall farms :) But the kids still had a lot of fun, especially holding the baby animals.

enough of the blender already!

So there hasn't been a whole lot of noteworthy action going on here but there have been photo worthy moments. BTW, the kids are all in bed but I can hear Abbey and Cloe giggling, I can't bring myself to go up and make them stop, it's kind of sweet, I hope they are always good friends.
I ordered a belt for Charlotte's pump and she was so excited when it came in the mail, they also included a free headband. The belt has two pockets that close with velcro and it is so much easier to stick her pump in the belt rather than having it hang off of her pants and trying to keep the tubing all tucked in.
The kids get out at 1:00 on Fridays so we took a trip up to Bountiful to visit my Grandma (their great Grandma Young).
It was a loooong drive home. Lots of stop and go traffic. (if you're a little confused, that is my neice)

In the spirit of spring, I started some spring cleaning. Actually I got sick of my food storage being unorganized. This is the laundrey room on the main floor, we don't use it because the dryer hook ups are gas. Since it is sort of hidden, I never finished unpacking/organizing it when we moved in. I was making dinner the other night and needed white beans. I knew I had them but couldn't find any, that's what kicked my butt in gear. I had a lot of white beans once I organized it all.
much, much, much better. It's hard to restock when you don't even know for sure what you have :) And can I just mention that i love my food storage. My grocery bill is so much smaller and cooking is so much more convenient.
Since the weather had been so nice, I planted all my cold weather seeds in the garden and got the rest of my seeds started in cups. I love my garden. I check on these cups often to see if anything is sprouting.
The days had been so nice that Charlotte and I enjoyed or afternoons outside letting the baby chickens walk around.
of course she doesn't let them walk very much, she prefers to always be holding one or pulling it in a wagon or giving it a ride on her bike or scooter. And they tolerate it so it is partially their fault.
72 degrees and the kids were selling juice on the corner then BOOM, we wake up to this the very. next. day.
it was gorgeous but I just wasn't feeling it. It didn't feel right in April.
and thats that. I've been training for a half marathon that I will be running next saturday. Next week is spring break for the kids. I'm looking forward to the break and hopefully some fun activities. If you're doing anything around here, give us a holler, we'd love to tag along :) I would love to be going on a cruise with the family buuuuut, that's not gonna happen. but here's to dreaming.

mexican night

I'm telling you, I often think while cooking "this is good, I should post it to the blog".
This is a good dinner to eat if you have leftover meat or it can also be meatless. I have only made it with leftover meat but I'm sure boiled chicken or slow cooked meat would be good. This is the closest I have come to making restaurant enchiladas

Red Enchiladas
1/2 onion
3 garlic cloves
lbs chicken (I sometimes use a roast from sunday dinner)
salt & dash of cumin
1/2 a bag of Guajillo peppers. (that is the brand. they are dried whole red peppers found with the mexican food)
cilantro
tortilla's
cheese

get all the seed out of the peppers. Heat some oil in a pan and quickly grill/sautee' the peppers, don't burn them because the sauce will taste burnt. It's a quick frying.

in a blender add:
peppers
1 c. H20 (or broth from boiled chicken)
onion
garlic
salt, cumin
some cilantro

blend that all up and clear your sinuses.
in a baking dish spread a thin layer of sauce. Fry the tortillas quickly but don't fry them stiff, then spread some cheese and meat in the tortilla and roll it up like a enchilada and place in baking dish. Once your pan is full put another layer of sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle more cheese.
Put it in the oven, I'll let you choose your temp and time since I I don't have it written down, I just put it in and keep an eye on it.

These are good served with spanish rice. This recipe is from my cousin Sydney.
2 T butter
1 small onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 c rice
1.5 c chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes ( I prefer to chop the tomatoes even smaller, I don't like chunky tomatoes in rice)

melt butter in large skillet, one with a lid and add the onion. Sautee until translucent. Add the rice and garlic and toss to cover with butter. Reduce heat to med-low and cook, stirring constantly until rice is golden 2-3 minutes. Add chicken broth and tomatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

last week or all about charlie

Ryan got older on the 15th
he wanted bread pudding for his cake and I finally mastered it. So delicious.
Charlotte got an insulin pump! I am still figuring it out but it is so much easier than shots. The meter that I use to check her blood also communicates with the pump so I have given her a dose of insulin while driving down the freeway, so cool.
We went for a lunch date after our 3 hour training appointment and one on one time with my kids on a date is my favorite. She was so cute, she started dancing to a song and told me "this is my favorite song" and she was totally serious.


That same day was St Patricks day, not the most eventful holiday but we were still payed a visit by a leprauchan. He left the kids a note with a luckey $2 bill.


green pasta, green salad and I made mint "oreos" (not a huge fan of mint oreos)

Brody earned this gun but I was really trying to capture Charlotte's reaction when the insulin is "delivered" through the pump. The pump vibrates and so the first few days she was always surprised when I gave her insulin

Our baby chickens aren't so little and fluffy anymore. Charlotte still ask to hold the baby chickens all day and has recently started sending them down her slide and also loves to take them for rides on her bike or scooter.

my Grandpa

On Wednesday, March 2 my mom called me worried because my grandpa had had bad diarrhea and was having a hard time breathing and asked me to drive up to Bountiful with her. I have to admit I was a little hesitant because it was dinner time and it didn't seem like anything to worry about but I went and shortly after, we got the call saying that he had passed away. It was completely unexpected and a total shock for the whole family. He was so healthy. I was glad I went with my mom because although he had already died, it was comforting to see my cousins and aunts at the hospital and to sort of say "good bye" to grandpa. The funeral was the following Monday and all the grand kids had a chance to say something short about grandpa, I was proud to always have such a good looking Grandpa, now you know where I get it, and my kids always referred to him as "Grandpa with the big muscles." I feel like my feelings towards him are so cliche' but he was a good example of so many positive traits. I know he loved me and my family and I know that he was proud of me. He was very giving and I wish I had inherited his organization skill. I always enjoyed talking with him and felt like his favorite because he would write me letters when I was living in Italy. But come to find out, he made everyone feel like his favorite. I miss him a lot, I think that comes with his death being so sudden. I love him and can't wait for the day when I can see him again. I have to admit that one thing I do like about going to a funeral is the reminder of how precious life is and how important it is to be prepared. It always makes me reflect on my own life and how I want to be remembered and what type of person I am.

My Grandpa served in the Navy and always flew a flag at his house. There is something about the American flag that always makes me emotional. As soon as we arrived at the church and I saw these flags I got choked up. Seeing flags out on patriotic holidays also gets me emotional, and hearing the National Anthem makes me teary eyed.

dinner

I am a huge believer in family dinner. For the obvious reasons of bringing the family together and talking and having that intimate time together without distractions but I also believe in the importance of well cooked dinners. Made with as many fresh ingredients as possible, made from scratch, full of flavor and smell. Harmony and peace and love abound in a house where dinner is being cooked and served. I love when my kids say "mmmmm, smells good, what's for dinner?" I also really enjoy cooking and baking, it is one of my hobbies. I think it would be awesome to be a chef in a restaurant, a good restaurant. I took some cooking classes while in Italy and it was so fun, I've thought about doing it here but haven't found one that really strikes my interest. I need to just do it because I love when friends teach me a new recipe and we cook together. So on that note, I think I might occasionally post some of our favorite recipe's around here. Sometimes when I cook, I think, "I should post this to my blog, it is so good", but then I worry that we might have different taste....
My kids love this recipe. I try to plan the week out so that a lighter meal follows a night of a heavier meal and I try to have a night or two that is meatless. Tonight was meatless.
Lentils with Spinach over Rice:
3/4 c lentils
1 cup water or so (that is another reason I don't post, I don't really measure)
3 T olive oil
clove of garlic
1 can tomato, or fresh ones chopped
1/2 a lemon juiced or some squirts of lemon juice (see, I'm bad measuring)
2 handfuls of spinach, I always end up adding more after it wilts
1.5 tsp salt

bring lentils and H2O to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in O.O, garlic minced, tomatoes and salt cover and simmer 10-15 minutes. Start cooking your rice, I prefer mine cooked on the stove, my rice cooker hardly ever made rice just right. Add spinach and lemon juice. Simmer while the spinach wilts and serve over rice or pasta.

Let me know if you try it, if you've never had lentils you'll be surprised at how tasty they actually are.


While I'm at it, can I also add the importance of a good breakfast for your kids? Since diabetes education, I've learned that cold cereal isn't the best way to start your day. I'll throw in a breakfast recipe we enjoy once in a while as well. But don't get me wrong, we do have cereal, it just isn't the first option and it isn't colorful.